A chronicle of a life of wild abandon and civilized sobriety in Santa Barbara, California

Tag Archives: gallery wall

Being its owner is third on my list of Life’s Joys. But it, like everything else, is not perfect. One of her main imperfections is the low amount light that the living room gets from morning until mid afternoon. The upstairs bedrooms get great morning light, but downstairs takes most of the day to wake up. That’s her main imperfection.

Her secondary imperfection is an awkwardly configured living room.

(My main imperfection is listing imperfections.)

Both of these architectural foibles have been felt most severely by the north-eastern wall of the living room. It is furthest away from the bright dining area windows, and meets the fireplace wall at an angle. It tended to always feel like it was looming. The Lurking Wall. It needed something to brighten it up without making it feel cluttered. So this is what we did:

Wood do you think?

The wood slats do not solve the problem of light in the living room, but they do brighten the space and give a person’s eye something to study. My vision for this wall is a gallery of framed art along with the tv – off center to the right as part of the gallery wall. And over the fireplace – more framed art! The Old Man’s vision also includes an abundance of art, adds a guitar, but puts the tv (and speakers) above the fireplace. A lively debate between The Old Man and me about the very important television placement detail is what made this wall happen on a late afternoon last Saturday.
We have decided to compromise by moving the tv back and forth from one wall to the other until one of us relents / sees the benefit of the other’s vision. As we are both very opinionated on the subject, I imagine we will be switching back and forth for a while.

Inspiration for having a non-tv centric living space:

Seen at plumprettysugar.blogspot.com

Seen at thisisnotmylifeforever.tumbler.com

This photo above is particularly great. Did you even notice the framed tv screen at the bottom right of the gallery? No? Me neither.

Now imagine with me…

Our current living room situation.

… art over the fireplace, the tv mounted on the slatted wall (wires hidden behind the wood), a guitar hanging within an arm’s reach, and a modern mantle. Not a bad vision, right? A work in progress, anyway. Eventually a different rug (I love this rug, but this room needs something less busy that can go a day without being vacuumed for dog hair), different shades on the windows, a chair that will fit two but not block the window too much, a sofa with a lower profile, some other coffee table, the list goes on! I think I would like to paint the entertainment center, too. Especially once we figure out what we are doing about the mantle, there is going to be a whole lot of wood happening in here, and a bright colored slap of paint might be just the thing. And white walls! I am usually not a fan of totally white walls, but I really think it will help brighten the place. Gosh, this picture looks cluttered. I’ll see if The Old Man is amenable to putting doors on the entertainment center. And the more I look at it, the more sure I am that the black chair has got to go.